Upgrade to DirecTivo for Existing Customer Questions

[m4yh3m]

Hi all:

I am currently very happy with my DirecTV service, and I am debating on two choices to get Tivo. I had considered getting a stand alone Tivo box, but I am landlocked, i.e. no more room for additional components in my setup area. So I debated either getting the Pioneer Tivo/DVD Burner or a DirecTiVo reciever. Due to money constraints, I am going with the DirecTivo option.

I have a couple of questions here (please explain answers to me at a 3rd grade level :) :

1. How painful is the transfer of DirecTV reciever going to be? I am using a Sony SAT-B55, I assume I would need to eject the card then import it into the new reciever?

2. Most of the deals online that I have seen for new DirecTivo are for new customers only, is the reciever market similar to the cell phone market with kickbacks in equipment costs for new subscribers? If so, what additional monies should I count on paying for the equipment? In the cell phone game, the rebates/kickbacks are in the $250/$300 range.

3. How painful will a receiver storage upgrade be? I am a computer nerd both in career and hobby, but if there is soldering or any "hot" work required, I think I'll pass.

Thanks!

[Mark Holtz]

Actually, your best bet would be the DirecTiVo, as they are going for $99 for both new and existing customers. You will want to run a second line to use both tuners.

As for upgrading the hard drive.... if you have worked inside a PC, you can perform the upgrade yourself. You will need to get a copy of MFSTools on CD. From there, the options can vary. If you do a straight replacement of the original drive with the larger drive, the time will vary. To give you examples (and both options will save your timers AND your thumbs settings).

DON'T SAVE RECORDINGS - Less than a hour, and most of that is opening and closing the case.

DO SAVE RECORDINGS - Several hours, so it's best to do it overnight.

[EricG]

1. The new DirecTV DVR will come with it's OWN access card. You won't "transfer" anything.
2. DirecTV is offering the DVR for $99 for NEW and EXISTING subscribers. The DVR can be had at BestBuy, Circuit City, or many online retailers, www.expertsatellite.com included. Or call 1 800 Get A DVR.
3. Upgrading is a breeze if know your way around a PC. Or you can get a kit ready to bolt in. Check out www.tivocommunity.com


Hi all:

I am currently very happy with my DirecTV service, and I am debating on two choices to get Tivo. I had considered getting a stand alone Tivo box, but I am landlocked, i.e. no more room for additional components in my setup area. So I debated either getting the Pioneer Tivo/DVD Burner or a DirecTiVo reciever. Due to money constraints, I am going with the DirecTivo option.

I have a couple of questions here (please explain answers to me at a 3rd grade level :) :

1. How painful is the transfer of DirecTV reciever going to be? I am using a Sony SAT-B55, I assume I would need to eject the card then import it into the new reciever?

2. Most of the deals online that I have seen for new DirecTivo are for new customers only, is the reciever market similar to the cell phone market with kickbacks in equipment costs for new subscribers? If so, what additional monies should I count on paying for the equipment? In the cell phone game, the rebates/kickbacks are in the $250/$300 range.

3. How painful will a receiver storage upgrade be? I am a computer nerd both in career and hobby, but if there is soldering or any "hot" work required, I think I'll pass.

Thanks!

[m4yh3m]

1. The new DirecTV DVR will come with it's OWN access card. You won't "transfer" anything.
2. DirecTV is offering the DVR for $99 for NEW and EXISTING subscribers. The DVR can be had at BestBuy, Circuit City, or many online retailers, www.expertsatellite.com included. Or call 1 800 Get A DVR.
3. Upgrading is a breeze if know your way around a PC. Or you can get a kit ready to bolt in. Check out www.tivocommunity.com

Thanks for both of your responses. I didn't realize that the new unit would come with its own access card...

While it is tempting to drop the $500 and get the Hughes with the dual 160g drives, I think a better course might be to start with the $99 basic model and add capacity if I need it. It looks like weaknees has a bracket available for adding a second drive, and it appears that their instructions are pretty verbose. One question I do have regarding adding a second drive, do I still need to preformat the drive, or is the system smart enough to recognize and use a blank HD?

Thanks again for all the info, I may go out on Wednesday after I get paid and get into TiVo :)

[Mark Holtz]

35 Hour DVR - $99+Tax
Weeknees Kit with Fans - $99 + Tax
2xSamsung 160 GB HD - $230 + Tax (NewEgg)

Total cost: ~$430 + Tax, plus some time to upgrade the drives.

[cnsf]

http://www.9thtee.com/tivo-dt2.htm also has a nice bracket kit I've used three times.

Also, all the instructions and downloads you'll need are on this page.

[cnsf]

P.S. I've found that the bigger the upgrade, the slower the Tivo. Have no clue why.....

[m4yh3m]

I bought the Hughes DirecTivo last night, the most painful part of the process was having to deal with Best Buy to get it. Upgrade was in and done in 15 minutes including the call to D*

[EricG]

Enjoy!

[HarryD]

Feel the Joy!

[m4yh3m]

As a new TiVo user, it is entertaining to see what the TiVo thinks I want to watch. So far it has recorded several fine selections in spanish, and it apparantly thinks that I like to watch late night infomercials.

I'm happy with the service, and look forward to seeing what wonderful treasures await me at home via TiVo's auto suggestions.

[HarryD]

You can turn that off if you wish.. I personally find the suggestions annoying!

[Mark Holtz]

Welcome to DBSTalk, m4yh3m! The first thing you want to do on your Tivo is find a show called "Paid Programming" and give it three thumbs down. Also, you have to scan the "Channels you receive" to remove the channels that you probably won't be watching.

[m4yh3m]

Welcome to DBSTalk, m4yh3m! The first thing you want to do on your Tivo is find a show called "Paid Programming" and give it three thumbs down. Also, you have to scan the "Channels you receive" to remove the channels that you probably won't be watching.

Great idea on the paid programming. I haven't spent much time going over the nuts and bolts of how to get the DirecTiVo 100% setup the way that I want it, but I will go through the menus when I have more time over the holiday break. I am still amazed on how well the TiVo works and I do like the Tivo channel guide better than the B55 guide I was using, so all is well. :)

[tivosmart]

Hi m4yh3m, welcome to Tivoland.

The only things I want to add to what has already been said are:

- When upgrading be aware that the current Tivo software supports HDs up to 137GB, this is due to the fact that Tivo uses an older Linux kernel without 48-bit LBA support. Although it's not guaranteed, I expect Tivo will upgrade their kernel someday, in the meanwhile a single 120GB has been plenty for me.

- Now is a great time to buy HDs, since there are plenty of promotions for the holidays. Look at your Sunday paper at OfficeDepot, OfficeMax, Staples, BestBuy and CircuitCity. I bought a 120GB the day after black Friday for $50 after rebates ($70 in rebates if I remember correctly).

- You can install some "mods" in your Tivo to network it using USB-based networking, like USB-Ethernet or USB-WiFi devices. I've done it in mine and have installed ftpd, telnetd and TivoWeb, a cool little web server that allows you to control it over the net. It's actually the best way to browse your channels and schedule recordings, I rarelly use the remote anymore for that after I installed TivoWeb.

- Another great "mod": disable encryption in the MPEG stream, so you can transfer your Enterprise episodes (or whatever) to your PC and burn in CDs or DVDs. This is kind of a "grey" area, since DTV allows you to record movies in the VCR, but technically you're not supposed to record then to CDs... Anyway, for personal use it's probably no big deal.

- The "mods" prereq some knowledge of Linux (and always backup just in case), and there are several guides available online for step-by-step instructions. It took me half a day to do it, mostly because I had the wrong software images when I was trying to replace the kernel. To be fair, count on having some setbacks if you do it, and I recommend to use a second HD and keep your original one just in case the upgrade takes more time than planned (so the wife doesn't put you to sleep in the dog house because the TV is down at night).

[m4yh3m]

I was aware of the 137gb limit, I had planned on upgrading to dual 160gb drives to max the storage capacity under the current kernel. I also figured that I would wait until the 90 day warranty period was over. I'm not sure why that is important, just seems like it is. I can get the drives on discount since I work for a local university that buys them in bulk. The mods sound fun but since my experience with Linux is low (I support M$ products), I don't know how comfortable I would be hax0ring my TiVo. Were I to hack it, the DVD hack and the TiVoWeb hack sound like two likely candidates. The new drive idea sounds good, try all the hacks on a new sacrificial TiVo.

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone!

[Pegesus]

Hello everyone,

I just ordered my first Tivo last week and at Direct they said it was $99 plus a
$14.95 "delivery" fee. I can't find any mention of the "fee" on the website.

Did anyone else pay this??

Where I want to put my tivo there is NO way to get a phone line to it unless it runs on top of the wall or exposed on my tile floor.
Should I try it...or just put it someplace else??

3 of our receivers are not hooked up to phones and they work perfectly. The one that IS hooked to a phone line I've had to "reboot" twice....after upgrades??

Has anyone here used a Tivo with no phone line?? I know what the "official" answer is. I just want to know what REAL people say!!

Thanks

[bonscott87]

A DirecTivo will work fine without a phone line but it needs it to dial out 2-3 times for initial setup and would need to dial out to get any software upgrades. After 30 days it will nag you once a day to make a call. But since you *can* get a phone cord to it I'd just drag a phone line to it once every 2 weeks or so and force a daily call. Then put the cord away. That way you'll never see a nag screen and you'll stay up to date on software.

[yomama]

Where I want to put my tivo there is NO way to get a phone line to it unless it runs on top of the wall or exposed on my tile floor.
Should I try it...or just put it someplace else??

Thanks

Congrats on your Tivo...you will never watch TV the same.
I think the only reason it needs a phone line is to get the periodic software upgrades.....you may want to try the wireless phone jack. Good luck

[Bowtieman]

Hello everyone,

I just ordered my first Tivo last week and at Direct they said it was $99 plus a
$14.95 "delivery" fee. I can't find any mention of the "fee" on the website.

Did anyone else pay this??

Where I want to put my tivo there is NO way to get a phone line to it unless it runs on top of the wall or exposed on my tile floor.
Should I try it...or just put it someplace else??

3 of our receivers are not hooked up to phones and they work perfectly. The one that IS hooked to a phone line I've had to "reboot" twice....after upgrades??

Has anyone here used a Tivo with no phone line?? I know what the "official" answer is. I just want to know what REAL people say!!

Thanks

I had the same problem and had a company named "add a jack" come out and install a jack for me next to where I put the Tivo for $30 bucks. It took them about 20 minutes to finish the job. Look in the yellow pages for someone like this in your area and call and ask them how much.

I ordered my Tivo through expert satellite and I did not have to pay a shipping fee that I remember. It may have been incorporated in the HD package I purchased from them but I do not remember any shipping fees.

I wanted to hook mine up simply where I didn't have to worry about the updates. Peace of mind is sometime worth it's weight in gold.

I even went a little further and bought a 2.4 ghz A/V signal sender from Radio Shack to send the Tivo signal in the bedroom to my primary tv in the viewing area. It has rf capacity and the Tivo remote works very good from the viewing area.

Good luck and enjoy your Tivo. I know I sure have.

Bowtieman